(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

Got this from thete1 at the point I actually lost self-control and decided to do it, but I could have got it elsewhere - saw it numerous times. Enjoyed the results.

1. Take five books off your bookshelf.
2. Book #1 -- first sentence
3. Book #2 -- last sentence on page fifty
4. Book #3 -- second sentence on page one hundred
5. Book #4 -- next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty
6. Book #5 -- final sentence of the book
7. Make the five sentences into a paragraph:

I took them at random from five different bookcases. One is a library book.

I suppose I've always been interested in the relation of mind and body, growing up as I did in a culture that separated them distinctly. I've disturbed you, with this babble. They almost reach for the glasses. In compound numbers, unus is used for primus: uno et octogensimo anno, in the eighty-first year. And though the world should reel to a puny death and the wolves are appointed our godfathers, I will not fail you, ever.

Some of you will recgonize that last sentence for sure.

Not much coherence in that paragraph, I would say.

Comments

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

What is the last sentence?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's the final sentence of The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett, the third book in the Lymond series.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I smell a Dunnett quote! ;) Duh.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well of course. There is so much Dunnett in my bookshelves that it would be difficult to pick a number of books at random and not get a Dunnett novel. Especially from one certain bookcase.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Not much coherence in that paragraph, I would say.

Hm. It made great sense to me. Then again, I liked Tristram Shandy... and I write stuff like this myself, on purpose. Interesting, very interesting.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Is Tristran Shandy incoherent? I'm not sure what you mean!

Your writing sounds very odd! Everything I have read that you wrote was quite lucid.

[a mote in the] Eye of the Beholder

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was fairly cacophanous to me, when I read it at age fifteen or so. I should look at it again, see what I think now.

Um, my writing can be... idiosyncratic. Can be. Yes, all of it that you have read has been lucid, come to think of it. Let me see what I can find of the other sort, or let me see what I can concoct of the other sort. Sometime when sleep is not an urgent concern! Promise.

Re: [a mote in the] Eye of the Beholder

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think you misunderstand - I don't feel a particular desire to read your less lucid works. I don't even like non-lucid works, and do my best to avoid them! Except maybe Finnegan's Wake, though I'm not sure it qualifies. I was just surprised because I'd never heard that Tristram Shandy was difficult and any samples of your writing I have seen were notable for their clarity. Hmm. I bet I could find Tristram Shandy online and check it out for myself.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

It's Lymond's oath at St Giles - Disorderly Knights.

It reads like a quote from something else. D'you know if there's anything about it in the Companions? I'll try and remember to look when I get home from work.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Did you look? Did you find anything?

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Can't find it in either Companion. I think I'm looking in the right place, since it gives several other quotations starting with "And", but then with the Companions, you never know...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's often difficult to guess where the Companion will take a quotation as beginning. It's also possible that it's one of many quotations not included in either volume, or that the passage is Lymond waxing poetic in his own right.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I'll try and remember to bring it up when we reach the end of DK on the GoK read.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

PS What are the other four books? I'm curious!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The other books. Um. Lucikly I haven't put them away yet.

1. "Healing and the Mind" by Bill Moyers
2. "Shards of Honor" by Lois McMaster Bujold
3. "Bloodlake" by K.j.a. [sic]Wishnia (that's the library book)
4. "Kennedy's Revised Latin Grammar"
5. "The Disorderly Knights" by Dorothy Dunnett

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

"Shards of Honour" is the only other one I've read - I love the Miles books.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love them too. Definitely favourites. I haven't read the library book yet myself.

[rivier.livejournal.com]

You should try the whole thing from the Lymond Chronicles - I'd love to see if it came out in any way coherent. (I'd try it myself but I've foolishly lent #5 and #6 to a friend!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What a brilliant idea! I'm going to do it.